🇬🇧Learn English With News: Advanced English Vocabulary, Grammar, Pronunciation | Free English Lesson

Today you're going to learn English with the  news. We're going to read a news article together  

and you're going to learn a lot of grammar,  vocabulary and even pronunciation naturally  

by reading this article with me. Welcome back to  JForrestEnglish training. Of course, I'm Jennifer  

and this is your place to become a fluent  confident English speaker. Let's get started.  

Welcome to our article, you may recognize this man  he's the new British prime minister. The title of  

our article is inside the fortune a Britain's new  prime minister Rishi Sunak and his wife Akshata  

Murthy. Now, right off the bat, let's look at  this because we're going to see this a lot in  

the article. The fortune inside the fortune of  what is this? Well, fortune is a noun. Let me  

get my pen out. Fortune is a noun, and this simply  means a large amount of money. So it's a very good  

thing. You definitely want to have our fortune in  your bank account or to your name. So unfortunate.  

This is a noun, and it's a large  let me move myself a large amount  

of money. But here's the thing. It doesn't  have to just be cash. It could be money,  

assets in the form of goods such as poverty.  So we'll see here about his wife Akshata. Her  

goods are in the form of investments of stocks  ownership in companies which when you sell that  

it becomes money but for now it's considered  a good and it can also be property. So if you  

own many different homes around the world, and you  sold all of those, you would have like Li a large  

amounts of money. So you could say a fortune.  Now we use this a lot. You might say for example,  

she inherited a fortune when her  grand mother died. So she inherited  

money over time property or it could have  been good as well. She inherited a fortune.  

We also say she's worse, a fortune. So here to  be worse. This is just how much money or assets  

you have. And by saying off fortune, we're  talking about a large a large amount, she's  

worth a fortune. So the new prime minister of  Britain is worth a fortune. The UK is a new prime  

minister and his wife, the daughter of an Indian  tech billionaire, have a collective net worth  

higher than the personal fortune of King Charles  the third. So here we're seeing our noun again,  

the personal fortune. So this is the amount of  money goods or property belonging to King Charles.  

Now notice here we have an article, just  remember that this is an exception, an exception,  

proper nouns like the names of countries, the  names of people, the names of cities, don't take  

an article, but there are exceptions and UK we  don't say UK is a beautiful country. We say the  

UK is a beautiful country, just like we say. The  Can you think of another one with an exception?  

The obviously the USA right? We don't say USA we  say the USA is a beautiful country, but then we  

would say Switzerland is a beautiful country. We  would not say the Switzerland does Switzerland No.  

Just Switzerland. So remember, this is an  exception adding an article to a proper noun.  

You just have to memorize which countries  take an article there aren't very many.  

All right. Now, notice here have our conjugation  is in the form have remember has for he she it  

and then have for I have you have we have they  have well what's the subject here? Because it  

can make it difficult when your subject is  separated from your noun. So here, all of  

this information is additional information. It  doesn't have anything to do with the conjugation  

of our now. Our subject is the UK is new prime  minister, which is this man and his wife. So  

what's the subject? This man and his wife? They  they that's the subject and that's why we have  

have they have a collective that worse. So all  of this equals they as a subject. So always ask  

yourself when you're thinking about what verb do  I need? Always ask yourself what's my subject,  

and it's easiest to turn it into. I you he she  it we are they to understand the conjugation.  

After winning the contest for leadership of the  Conservative Party, Rishi Sunak is set to become  

the United Kingdom's next prime minister,  that will make him the most powerful person  

in the country. The 42 year old former finance  minister and investment banker is already among  

the UK richest, largely thanks to the fortune  held by his wife Akshata Murthy. Let's look  

at this. What do you notice about our verb or  verb is winning? What's the conjugation here?  

It is in the gerund form. Gerund. This is a  gerund. And you know why? That because we have,  

of course, we have our verb, and then you  add ing verb + ing. Now why why is this in  

the gerund form? Why not? The Present Simple Why  not the past simple because of the word after.  

And what is so important about the word after  that requires a gerund verb. Do you know  

it's a preposition and we always use a gerund  verb after preposition so preposition plus  

Jaren we have after so we put winning after  winning the contest for leadership. Okay.  

The most powerful person in the country.  

Notice here we have the 42 year old this  is being used as an adjective. We could say  

he is 42 years old. And notice I have  the s on yours because it's more than  

one. So it's plural and you need to add  the s to plural nouns plural nouns, you  

add s or ES. But this is not a noun. It's an  adjective and we don't add SS to adjectives.  

So this is an adjective. The former finance  minister, Minister, what type of former finance  

minister providing more information  by stating his age, the 42 year old  

so you might say for example, the 50  year old movie or the 100 year old helps,  

for example, so these are being used  as adjectives because I could say  

the 100 year old so I can get rid of  that and it's just the house what type  

of house I'm going to provide more  information, the 100 year old house,  

the movie, what type of movie  the 50 year old movie adjectives  

so here we see the fortune held by his wife  held is just saying that it belongs to her  

I like this here. Thanks to of course, you know  how to use the word. Thank you. Thank you for your  

compliment. Thank you for I'll just do an easier  one. Thank you for the gift, something everybody  

understands. Thank you for the gift. You can never  say first of all, you can never say things you  

that is always incorrect. You have to say thank  you. But you could also say thanks or the gift.  

Notice my preposition choice is for thanks  for thank you for what do you notice up here  

thanks to hmm, because it's being used in  an entirely different way. Sure. We have the  

word thanks. But I'm not showing appreciation.  Here's how this is used. Thanks to something  

or someone. This is the sentence structure. We  only use things in this case you cannot say thank  

you to. Okay. Thank you to someone or something.  You cannot say that. So I'm going to cross this  

out. You can't say that this is incorrect. One or  something? Let me give you an example sentence.  

Thanks. Thanks to Jennifer's amazing lessons.  I've improved my English or you could say I got  

the job. I got the job. I was offered the  job. Thanks to Jennifer's amazing lessons.  

So the easiest way to understand what this means  and notice here, this is a sum thing even though  

it has my name is honest someone because  it's actually things to the lessons, but I'm  

just saying which lessons and I'm providing more  information, things to Jennifer's amazing lessons.  

I got the job. What we can  do is change the sentence  

structure and use a different word to  understand the meaning. I got the job.  

Jennifer's amazing lessons. Do you know how  I would complete this? Do you have any idea  

what I would put here? I got the job because I'm  structure we're just reversing it. So the reason  

why comes before the results. This is the result  and this is the reason why. So you might say  

I'll give you one more example sentence  I'm running out of room here. I could say  

thanks to COVID I had to cancel my vacation.  So notice this is a negative. The word thinks  

in your mind you probably think it's always  a positive and it is when I say thank you,  

but this is a totally different sentence  structure. Thanks to something or someone  

this is a something I'm providing the reason why I  had to cancel my vacation because of COVID Thanks  

to COVID I had to cancel my vacation. I highly  suggest you practices in the comments below  

because it's a very common sentence structure. It  will help you sound very advanced. So try it both  

ways. Write it with thanks to and then change  it and use because that will really help you  

feel comfortable using the sentence structure. So  try that in the comments. And let's continue on.  

Did I read this all yet? No, I did not. Okay,  Murthy 42. That's how old she is. Sometimes in  

articles you will just see the number Murthy 42.  That's her age. Murthy. 42 is the daughter of nr.  

Narayana Murthy, the co founder and retired  chairman of Indian tech giant info side whose  

net worth is estimated by forms at or point  $5 billion, billion and then I say the word  

dollars with an s because it's plural. And notice  how I vocalize this or point five or point $5  

billion her own zero point again 0.93%  stake in the publicly traded digital  

services consulting firm is worth  $715 million than I vocalized as  

making up the vast majority of her and soon  X combined fortunate. All together Forbes  

estimating Sunak and his wife Murthy are worth  roughly $810 million more than a quarter of a  

billion dollars richer than the 500 million  personal fortune of King Charles the third  

Sunak and Murthy didn't immediately respond to a  request for comment. Okay, all of this is talking  

about what their fortune their fortune a large  amounts of money. Obviously when we're getting  

into millions and we're talking about billions  here we can definitely consider that a fortune.  

I like this. This is quite common to add the vast  majority. The word vast isn't needed. Honestly,  

because majority already means 75% 80% the largest  portion vast is just emphasizing that the vast  

majority. So instead of 75%, which is a majority  majority is basically anything over 50 But that we  

could probably say anything over 75 so that word  is there simply to make it stronger. So this is  

to emphasize the word majority. You do see this  a lot the word the vast majority of the Fortune.  

All right, and just remember how we vocalized  the point and the word dollars when we're  

talking about money. Let's move on here as  the new prime minister Sunak will now move  

to 10 Downing Street next door to his former  residents when he served as Boris Johnson's  

Chancellor from February 2020 to July this  year. You'll also have access to checkers,  

the sitting Prime Minister's 60s, century  countryside retreat and bunkie Buckinghamshire.  

All right, go back for a second here  

okay, just wanted to point this word out  as our preposition to but how is it being  

represented because we have February 2022  July. So when we're talking about a range,  

so you can think of that range just as let's  just say x to y, and we use the preposition  

to and this is when we're expressing  a range so you might say for example  

today I'm on available from from two, I'll  say four to six, four to six. Now notice  

I forgot to add this word because it's  not just X to Y, it's from x to y.  

I changed. At first I had to, but I changed it to  four simply because for teaching purposes two to  

six. So the pronunciation is exactly the same two  to six. But a native speaker is going to pronounce  

this to more of a reduced sound and is going to  sound like to so if I do have the number two I  

would say I'm unavailable from two to six to to  two to six, two to six, or to six three to 612  

to 612, noon, noon to six whatever your time may  be. You might say I'm on vacation from Monday  

to Friday, for example, Monday to Friday to  Monday to Friday. That's simply how a native  

speaker is going to pronounce this in a natural  conversation. You don't have to pronounce it  

like that. You can definitely say Monday to Friday  and pronounce it fully. Just get comfortable with  

hearing it as a reduced sound. Monday to Friday.  Let's move on to our last page of the article.  

But much like the British monarch Sunak and Murthy  who married in August 2009 in a two day ceremony  

in Bangalore, India. And have two daughters  have their own personal real estate portfolio.  

The couple owns four homes spread across the UK  and California worth an estimated $18.3 million  

so remember remember what I was  talking about before when our subject  

is far removed from the next part of our  sentence. So here again we have have exactly  

the same verb and conjugation we saw before. Now  notice our verb is here, where is the subject  

is actually quite divided. So we take away all the  information between these dashes and our subject  

is actually right here. So again, in written form,  in spoken form, as well. Our subject can be far  

removed from the verb. So when you're writing or  when you're speaking, you have to remember what  

your subject is when you're thinking about your  verb conjugation. Of course, this is a lot easier  

to do in writing because you can think about it in  spoken English. You have to just say it instantly  

so you don't have as much time to think that's  why it's so helpful to practice. in written form,  

get comfortable with this. Okay, let's  move on to I believe our our last section  

some of let me see some of Murphy's business  ventures haven't been successful. She had a  

fashion label based in California Akshata  designs which hat which she set up in 2010  

and shut down two years later. Murthy is also a  director at and owns a small stake in boutique  

gym chain dig may fitness, which was hit hard  by the COVID 19 pandemic and was forced to shut  

down forced to shut two of its six locations.  Earlier this year. All right, so here we have  

the phrasal verb shut down and set up. This  is perfect because they're opposites. And  

it's great because if you understand the  meaning of one, you can just think okay,  

what's the opposite of that meaning and then you  know the opposite. So you've learned two phrasal  

verbs in one. So that's awesome. To set something  up in a business context, you always have to think  

what's my context? In this case, we're talking  about a business a company. You can also think of,  

for example, a new project or a new area of  an existing business, but when you to set  

I'll just say to set a business up because  that's the context. This simply means to  

to establish, which is I guess a more  formal way of simply saying to start  

to set the business up so she set up X  shot Akshata designs, she established it,  

she started it, she created it, she  sent it off it being the business.  

So she set action at shatter designs off in 2010.  The sentence structure is just simply different,  

which she set off in 2010. So if set up is to  establish or start, then what is shut down it's  

the opposite. So what's the opposite of to start?  It's to end so when you shut down a business,  

you permanently close it. This phrasal verb became  very widespread. During the pandemic because a  

lot of businesses had to shut down they had to  permanently close. So let me look. Let me write  

this out for you. Let me move myself here. So  to shut a business down is to permanently close.  

So this is a great set to practice in the comments  below because you have to set up and then you have  

the opposite to shut to shut down. Now notice  we have the preposition in before you state.  

The date was set up in the fall. This spring was  set up in March was set up in 2012 for example.  

Okay, and finally our last paragraph. It's unclear  how much Sunak earns in finance but his new gig as  

prime minister comes with a sizeable pay bomb.  He'll now make more than $185,000 a year nearly  

double his $95,000 wage as a member of parliament.  All right. A pay bump is a pay increase.  

So that's just another way of saying a pay  increase which means you're making more money.  

A pay bump a pay increase. sizeable  means large large and as you can see,  

it was more than double or nearly double,  nearly double so that is sizeable nearly double.  

All right, so now you know all about the new prime  minister and his wife and you know about how he  

earned his fortune. So I hope you enjoyed this  article. Amazing job with this lesson. Think of  

all the grammar vocabulary and pronunciation that  you learned naturally in hopefully a very fun,  

engaging and enjoyable way. Now I want you  to take your favorite new expression from  

this article and leave an example sentence  in the comments below. And what did you  

think about this article? Did you enjoy  it? Share your thoughts on the article  

in the comments below. And if you found this  video helpful, please hit the like button,  

share with your friends and of course subscribe.  And before you go, make sure you head on over  

to my website JForrestEnglish.com and download  your free speaking Guide. In this guide I share  

six tips on how to speak English fluently and  confidently and until next time Happy Studying.